Methods and systems for preventing users from terminating services based on use

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are also described herein for a media guidance application that generates for display content associated with preventing a user from terminating a service based on whether or not the user has purchased a particular number of media assets that are available only through the service. For example, in response to determining that a user, currently subscribed to a first service, has purchased a threshold number of media assets from the first service, the media guidance application may determine that it is unlikely that the user will terminate the use of the first service.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patentapplication No. 61/985,149, filed Apr. 28, 2014, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

In conventional systems, users have a plethora of content and a plethoraof services offering to provide that content at their disposal. To enjoythe content, users may access one or more services, which typicallyfeature a separate price for each item or a fixed-priced, or short-termsubscription for unlimited access to the entire content portfolio of theservice. However, due to the competition between content providers,users may easily and frequently stop using one service in favor ofanother. Therefore, encouraging users to stay with a current service isa high priority to the current service providers.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, methods and systems are described herein for a mediaguidance application that generates for display content associated withpreventing a user from terminating a service. For example, in responseto determining that a user, currently subscribed to a first service, hassubscribed to a second service, the media guidance application maycompare the content accessible from each service. In response todetermining that the services offer similar content, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display discounts or other promotions forthe first service. For example, the media guidance application mayprevent the user from terminating a service by offering discounts for aservice or alerting the user to current or future content that is onlyaccessible through one of the services.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may determine (e.g.,using control circuitry) a user is subscribed to a first service. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve a list (e.g., fromstorage circuitry) that indicates one or more services are currentlysubscribed to by the user or otherwise used to access media assets.

The media guidance application may detect (e.g., using the controlcircuitry) that the user has subscribed to a second service. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive inputs from the user(e.g., describing services to which the user subscribes), authorizationdata from the second service (e.g., granting access to the user to mediaassets available from the second service), and/or information from thirdparties (e.g., online transactions, credit card statements, etc.,related to the second service) that indicate the user has subscribed tothe second service.

In response to detecting that the user has subscribed to the secondservice, the media guidance application may compare (e.g., using thecontrol circuitry) media assets accessible through the first service tomedia assets accessible through the second service to determine whethera media asset is accessible through both the first service and thesecond service. For example, the media guidance application maycross-reference a database (e.g., stored on storage circuitry) thatlists content providers for each media asset (or series of media assets)available from the first service to determine whether the second serviceprovides a respective media asset. Alternatively or additionally, themedia guidance application may query each service for a list of mediaassets (or series of media assets) currently available (or available inthe future) and compare the results of the queries.

In response to determining the media asset is accessible through boththe first service and the second service, the media guidance applicationmay generate for display, on a display device, content associated withpreventing the user from terminating the first service. For example, themedia guidance application may generate for display discounts to theprice of the first service or alert the user to media assets that areonly accessible (currently or in the future) through one of theservices.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine not togenerate for display the content associated with preventing the userfrom terminating the service in response to determining the media assetis not accessible through the service. For example, in response todetermining that one or more media assets are not accessible through thesecond service, the media guidance application may determine thatgenerating the content is not needed in order to prevent the user fromterminating a subscription to the service (e.g., the ability to accessthe media assets is itself an incentive to retain the user of the firstservice).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare theprice for the first service to a price for the second service anddetermine not to generate for display, on the display device, thecontent associated with preventing the user from terminating the firstservice in response to determining that the price for the first serviceis less than the price for the second service based on the comparison.For example, in response to determining that the price for accessing oneor more media assets from the second service, the media guidanceapplication may determine that generating the content is not needed inorder to prevent the user from terminating a subscription to the service(e.g., the lower costs of the media assets is itself an incentive toretain the user of the first service).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare a firstdate when the media asset is accessible through the first service to asecond date when the media asset is accessible through the secondservice and determine not to generate for display, on the displaydevice, the content associated with preventing the user from terminatingthe first service in response to determining that the first date isbefore the second date. For example, in response to determining that theuser may access one or more media assets through the first servicebefore the second service, the media guidance application may determinethat generating the content is not needed in order to prevent the userfrom terminating a subscription to the service (e.g., the ability toaccess media assets sooner is itself an incentive to retain the user ofthe first service).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may perform one ormore actions in response to determining that a subscription period forthe first service is ending. For example, in response to determiningthat a subscription period for the first service is ending, the mediaguidance application may detect whether or not the user has subscribedto a second service, whether or not the second service has similar mediaassets, etc.

Methods and systems are also described herein for a media guidanceapplication that generates for display content associated withpreventing a user from terminating a service based on whether or not theuser has purchased a particular number of media assets that areavailable only through the service. For example, in response todetermining that a user, currently subscribed to a first service, haspurchased a threshold number of media assets from the first service, themedia guidance application may determine that it is unlikely that theuser will terminate the use of the first service. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may determine that generating for display contentassociated with preventing the user from terminating the first serviceis unnecessary.

For example, the media guidance application may determine that thepurchase of media assets from the first service indicates that a userprefers those media assets, and if a threshold number of media assetsthat are preferred by the user are not accessible from another source(e.g., the second service), the media guidance application determinesthat the user is unlikely to terminate the use of the first service.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g.,using control circuitry) a media asset purchase history for a user, inwhich the media asset purchase history indicates media assets purchasedby the user from a first service. For example, the media guidanceapplication may track in a user profile (e.g., stored on storagecircuitry) the media asset purchases of a user. In some embodiments, themedia asset purchase history may further indicate the purchases during aparticular time period, the rate of purchases, etc.

The media guidance application may determine (e.g., using the controlcircuitry) a number of media assets that were purchased by the user fromthe first service that are not accessible through a second service. Forexample, the media guidance application may cross-reference a databaselisting content providers for the media assets purchased by the userfrom the first service to determine the number of media assets (or thenumber of different media asset series) that were purchased by the userfrom the first service that are not accessible through the secondservice. Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance applicationmay query each service for a list of media assets (or series of mediaassets) currently available (or available in the future) and compare theresults of the queries.

The media guidance application compares (e.g., using the controlcircuitry) the number of media assets that were purchased by the userfrom the first service to a threshold number. For example, the thresholdnumber may represent a particular number of media assets the purchase ofwhich indicates that a user is unlikely to terminate the user of thefirst service. The media guidance application may determine theparticular number based on the prior history of the user (e.g., thenumber of media assets the user purchased before previously renewing asubscription to the first service and/or the number of media assets theuser purchased prior to terminating the use of another service), a groupor users (e.g., industry standards, market research, and/or customerfeedback), etc.

In response to determining that the number does not exceed the thresholdnumber, the media guidance application may generate for display, on adisplay device, content associated with preventing the user fromterminating the first service. For example, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display discounts to the price of the firstservice or alert the user to media assets that are only accessible(currently or in the future) through one of the services. Alternatively,the media guidance application may not generate for display, on thedisplay device, the content associated with preventing the user fromterminating the service in response to determining that the number doesexceed the threshold number. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that a user is unlikely to terminate the use of the firstservice. Therefore, the media guidance application determines thatgenerating the content associated with preventing the user fromterminating the first service is unnecessary.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine amedia asset that was purchased by the user from the first service isaccessible through the second service and compare a first date when themedia asset was accessible through the first service to a second datewhen the media asset was accessible through the second service. Inresponse to determining that the first date is before the second date,the media guidance application may increase the number by one.

For example, the media guidance application may determine that becausethe date of accessibility of the media asset from the first service isbefore the date of accessibility of the media asset from the secondservice, the user likely chose to purchase the media asset from thefirst service even though the media asset was accessible from the secondservice. Therefore, because the user chose to purchase the media assetfrom the first service instead of the second service, the purchase ofthe media asset should be counted towards the number (e.g., as itindicates that the user is unlikely to prefer to access that media assetfrom the second service). For example, if the user prefers to obtain athreshold number of media assets, even if some of them are accessiblefrom a second service, from a first service, the media guidanceapplication determines that the user is unlikely to terminate the use ofthe first service.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine amedia asset that was purchased by the user from the first service isaccessible through the second service and compare a first price of themedia asset, in which the first price indicates a price of accessing themedia asset through the first service, to a second price of the mediaasset, in which the second price indicates a price of accessing themedia asset through the second service. In response to determining thatthe first price is less than the second price, the media guidanceapplication increases the number by one.

For example, the media guidance application may determine that becausethe cost of the media from the first service is less than the cost ofthe media asset from the second service, the user likely chose topurchase the media asset from the first service even though the mediaasset was accessible from the second service. Therefore, because theuser chose to purchase the media asset from the first service instead ofthe second service, the purchase of the media asset should be countedtowards the number (e.g., as it indicates that the user is unlikely toprefer to access that media asset from the second service). For example,if the user prefers to obtain a threshold number of media assets, evenif some of them are accessible from a second service, from a firstservice, the media guidance application determines that the user isunlikely to terminate the use of the first service.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare theprice for the first service to a price for the second service anddetermine not to generate for display, on the display device, thecontent associated with preventing the user from terminating the firstservice in response to determining that the price for the first serviceis less than the price for the second service based on the comparison.For example, in response to determining that the price for accessing oneor more media assets from the second service, the media guidanceapplication may determine that generating the content is not needed inorder to prevent the user from terminating a subscription to the service(e.g., the lower cost of the media assets is itself an incentive toretain the user of the first service).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may perform one ormore actions in response to determining that a subscription period forthe first service is ending. For example, in response to determiningthat a subscription period for the first service is ending, the mediaguidance application may determine the number of media assets that werepurchased by the user from the first service that are not accessiblethrough the second service, whether or not the user has subscribed to asecond service, whether or not the second service has similarly pricedmedia assets, etc.

It should be noted that the systems and/or methods described above maybe applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods and/orapparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display screen generated by amedia guidance application that lists a plurality of media listings inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a display screen generatedby a media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative example of a display screen generated by amedia guidance application presenting content associated with preventinga user from terminating a service in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for generating for displaycontent associated with preventing the user from terminating the servicein response to determining a media asset is accessible through both afirst service and a second service in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for generating for displaycontent associated with preventing the user from terminating the servicein response to determining that the number does not exceed the thresholdnumber in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for selecting contentassociated with preventing a user from terminating the service inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining a number tocompare to a threshold number in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure; and

FIG. 10 is an illustrative system for generating an indicator of thelikelihood that a user will terminate access to a service or source inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DESCRIPTION

Methods and systems are described herein for preventing users fromterminating services. For example, in response to determining that auser, currently subscribed to a first service, has subscribed to asecond service, the media guidance application may compare the contentaccessible from each service. In response to determining that theservices offer similar content, the media guidance application maygenerate for display discounts or other promotions for the firstservice. For example, the media guidance application may prevent theuser from terminating a service by offering discounts for a service oralerting the user to current or future content that is only accessiblethrough one of the services. In another example, in response todetermining that a user, currently subscribed to a first service, haspurchased a threshold number of media assets from the first service, themedia guidance application may determine that it is unlikely that theuser will terminate the use of the first service. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may determine that generating for display contentassociated with preventing the user from terminating the first serviceis unnecessary.

As referred to herein, a “media guidance application,” “interactivemedia guidance application,” or “guidance application” is an applicationthat provides, through an interface, media guidance to a user. Mediaguidance applications may take various forms depending on the contentfor which they provide guidance. One typical type of media guidanceapplication is an interactive television program guide. Interactivetelevision program guides (sometimes referred to as electronic programguides) are well-known guidance applications that, among other things,allow users to navigate among and locate many types of content or mediaassets. Interactive media guidance applications may generate graphicaluser interface screens that enable a user to navigate among, locate andselect content.

As referred to herein, the terms “media asset” and “content” should beunderstood to mean an electronically consumable user asset, such astelevision programming, as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demandprograms (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g.,streaming content, downloadable content, Webcasts, etc.), video clips,audio, content information, pictures, rotating images, documents,playlists, websites, articles, books, electronic books, blogs,advertisements, chat sessions, social media, applications, games, and/orany other media or multimedia and/or combination of the same. Guidanceapplications also allow users to navigate among and locate content. Asreferred to herein, the term “multimedia” should be understood to meancontent that utilizes at least two different content forms describedabove, for example, text, audio, images, video, or interactivity contentforms. Content may be recorded, played, displayed or accessed by userequipment devices, but can also be part of a live performance.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine one ormore media assets that are accessible to a user through a service. Asreferred to herein a service is a source, direct or indirect, of mediacontent. For example, a service may be any entity that provides mediaassets and/or provides access to media assets. For example, a servicemay include any entity that creates, sells, distributes, and/orfacilitates the creation, selling and/or distribution of media assets.For example, a service may include an entity that streams media contentto a user or may include an entity that provides Internet servicesthrough which the user can stream media content. In another example, anentity may include a content provider (e.g., a broadcast televisionstation) that broadcasts television programs to a user or may include abroker through which the user may rent or buy copies of the televisionprograms.

As referred to herein, “terminating access to service,” “terminating useof service,” or “terminating a service” means that the service wasdisconnected by the user, requested by the user to be removed from theuser's subscription plan, or is otherwise no longer accessible (or mediacontent offered by the service is no longer accessible) to the user. Forexample, after terminating access to a given service a user has tore-subscribe (repay) to the service to resume access to media contentfrom the service.

As referred to herein, a media asset is “accessible” from a servicebased on whether or not a user may obtain a media asset for consumptionon a permanent or temporary basis at one or more points in the future asa result, directly or indirectly, of subscribing to, paying for, orotherwise using the service. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may use additional criteria to determine whether or not amedia asset is accessible from a service.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine inwhich formats a media asset is accessible and what services providethose various formats. The media guidance application may use thisinformation to determine whether or not a media asset is accessible froma service. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat a movie is accessible from one service (e.g., a service thatprovides media content streamed over the Internet) via downloading themovie over the Internet. The media guidance application may alsodetermine that the same movie is accessible through another service(e.g., a commercial establishment that sells DVDs) by purchasing a DVDof the movie.

For example, in some embodiments, the media guidance application maydistinguish between the different formats. For example, to determinewhether or not a media asset (accessible by streaming the media assetover the Internet from one service) is accessible from other services,the media guidance application may only determine if the other servicesallow a user to stream the particular media asset. Alternatively, insome embodiments, the media guidance application may not distinguishbetween different formats. For example, to determine whether or not amedia asset (accessible by streaming the media asset over the Internetfrom one service) is accessible from other services, the media guidanceapplication may determine if the other services allow a user to streamthe particular media asset, buy a DVD of the media asset, view the mediaasset over broadcast television, access a transcript of the media asset,etc.

In another example, to determine whether or not a media asset(accessible in high definition from one service) is accessible fromother services, the media guidance application may only determine if theother services allow a user to access the media asset in highdefinition. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may not distinguish between resolution, file type, filesize, etc. For example, to determine whether or not a media asset(accessible from one service in high definition) is accessible fromother services, the media guidance application may determine if theother services allow a user to access the media asset in high definitionor standard definition.

For example, the media guidance application may compare a first formatof a media asset that is accessible through a first service to a secondformat of the media asset that is accessible through a second service.The media guidance application may then determine whether or not togenerate for display content associated with preventing the user fromterminating the first service in response to determining therelationship (e.g., same, different, etc.) of the first format to thesecond format.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine when amedia asset is accessible and may determine particular times and/ordates that the media asset is accessible from the different services.The media guidance application may use this information to determinewhether or not a media asset is accessible from a service. For example,the media guidance application may determine that a movie is accessiblefrom one service (e.g., a service that provides media content streamedover the Internet) at a particular point in the future (e.g., during themonth of July). The media guidance application may also determine thatthe same movie is accessible from another service (e.g., a commercialestablishment that sells DVDs) at any time in the future.

For example, in some embodiments, the media guidance application mayconsider times or dates of accessibility when determining whether or nota media asset is accessible from a particular service. For example, todetermine whether or not a media asset (accessible during July from oneservice) is accessible from other services, the media guidanceapplication may only determine if the other services allow a user toaccess the media asset during July. Alternatively, in some embodiments,the media guidance application may not consider times or dates ofaccessibility when determining whether or not a media asset isaccessible from a particular service. For example, to determine whetheror not a media asset (accessible during July from one service) isaccessible from other services, the media guidance application maydetermine if the other services allow a user to access the media assetat the same time, at different times, etc.

For example, the media guidance application may compare a first periodof time when a media asset is accessible through a first service to asecond period of time when the media asset is accessible through asecond service. The media guidance application may then determinewhether or not to generate for display content associated withpreventing the user from terminating the first service in response todetermining the relationship (e.g., before, after, equal, longer than,shorter than, etc.) of the first period of time to the second period oftime.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine atwhat price a media asset is accessible and may determine the particularprices at which the media asset is accessible from the differentservices. The media guidance application may use this information todetermine whether or not a media asset is accessible from a service. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that an eBook isaccessible from one service at a cost of ten dollars. The media guidanceapplication may also determine that the same eBook is accessible fromanother service at a cost of twelve dollars.

For example, in some embodiments, the media guidance application mayconsider the price of accessibility when determining whether or not amedia asset is accessible from a particular service. For example, todetermine whether or not a media asset (accessible for a cost of tendollars from one service) is accessible from other services, the mediaguidance application may only determine if the other services grantaccess for ten dollars. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may not consider the price of accessibility whendetermining whether or not a media asset is accessible from a particularservice. For example, to determine whether or not a media asset(accessible for a price of ten dollars from one service) is accessiblefrom other services, the media guidance application may determine if theother services grant access to the media asset for more, less, or thesame cost.

For example, the media guidance application may compare a price for afirst service (or the price of access to a media asset through the firstservice) to a price for the second service (or the price of access tothe media asset through the second service). The media guidanceapplication may then determine whether or not to generate for displaycontent associated with preventing the user from terminating the firstservice in response to determining the relationship (e.g., more, less,equal) of the price of the first service to the price of the secondservice.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine a typeof pricing structure from which a media asset is accessible and maydetermine the pricing structure from which the media asset is accessiblefrom the different services. The media guidance application may use thisinformation to determine whether or not a media asset is accessible froma service. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat a television program is accessible from one service on a per itembasis. The media guidance application may also determine that the sametelevision program (as well as other television programs) is accessiblefrom another service for a flat monthly fee.

For example, in some embodiments, the media guidance application mayconsider the pricing structure of the service when determining whetheror not a media asset is accessible from a particular service. Forexample, to determine whether or not a media asset (accessible for aone-time payment upon delivery fee of ten dollars from one service) isaccessible from other services, the media guidance application may onlydetermine if the other services grant access in return for a one-time,upfront fee. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may not consider the pricing structure of the service whendetermining whether or not a media asset is accessible from a particularservice. For example, to determine whether or not a media asset(accessible for a one-time payment upon a delivery fee of ten dollarsfrom one service) is accessible from other services, the media guidanceapplication may determine if the other services grant access to themedia asset for a fixed monthly fee (irrespective of whether more orless media assets are accessed), through a deferred payment plan,bundled as part of a package of content, and/or included in asubscription to the service.

For example, the media guidance application may compare a first pricingstructure for accessing a media asset that is through a first service toa second pricing structure for accessing the media asset through asecond service. The media guidance application may then determinewhether or not to generate for display content associated withpreventing the user from terminating the first service in response todetermining the relationship (e.g., same, different, longer, shorter,greater total cost, greater per item cost, etc.) between the first andsecond pricing structure.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether or not a media asset is part of a series of media assets. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine whether or not amedia assets is accessible based on whether a series of media assets ofwhich that media asset is a part is accessible and may determine whetheror not a media asset is accessible from the different services based onwhether a series of media asset of which that media asset is a part isaccessible. As referred to herein, a series of media assets is a groupor a number of related media assets that are arranged in a sequenceand/or share common characteristics (e.g., plot lines, characters,settings, cast and/or crew, producers, etc.) that distinguish them fromother media assets. For example, a series of media assets may include atelevision program series (e.g., featuring one or more episodes), amovie series (e.g., featuring one or more individual movies), etc.

For example, the media guidance application may determine that anepisode of a television series is accessible from one service based onthe television series being accessible from that service. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may base the determinationof whether the episode is accessible from other sources based on whetheror not the television series is accessible. Alternatively, in someembodiments, the media guidance application may not base thedetermination of whether the episode is accessible from other sourcesbased on whether or not the television series is accessible. Forexample, to determine whether or not a media asset (accessible as partof a series of media assets that are accessible through one service) isaccessible from other services, the media guidance application maydetermine if the other services grant access to the entire series orjust the single episode.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine a rateat which the media asset (or a series of media assets) is accessiblefrom the different services. The media guidance application may use thisinformation to determine whether or not a media asset is accessible froma service. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat a television series is accessible from one service at a rate of oneepisode a week. The media guidance application may also determine thatthe same television series is accessible from another service at a rateof two episodes a week.

For example, in some embodiments, the media guidance application maydetermine the rate at which media assets can be consumed whendetermining whether or not a media asset is accessible from a particularservice. For example, to determine whether or not a media asset(accessible at a first rate) is accessible from other services, themedia guidance application may only determine if the other servicesgrant access at the same rate. Alternatively, in some embodiments, themedia guidance application may not consider the rate at which mediaassets can be consumed when determining whether or not a media asset isaccessible from a particular service. For example, to determine whetheror not a media asset (accessible at a first rate) is accessible fromother services, the media guidance application may determine if theother services grant access to the media asset (irrespective of whetheror not the rate at which a user can consume the media asset is greaterthan, less than, or equal to the first rate).

For example, the media guidance application may compare a first rate atwhich a user may consume media assets through a first service to asecond rate at which a user may consume media assets through a secondservice. The media guidance application may then determine whether ornot to generate for display content associated with preventing the userfrom terminating the first service in response to determining therelationship (e.g., greater than, less than, or equal to the first rate)between the first and second rates.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine a rateat which a user consumes media content. The media guidance applicationmay express the rate of consumption in corresponding units. As referredto herein, a “rate of consumption” refers to an average rate at which auser consumes media assets during a period of time. In some embodiments,the “average” may be determined based on a mean, median, mode, or otherstatistical tool. In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationmay compare the rate of consumption to a threshold rate. For example, athreshold rate may correspond to a rate of consumption of media contentfrom a service at which the media guidance application determines (e.g.,with a particular likelihood) that the user is likely to terminate hisuse of the service. For example, the rate of consumption of the user maycorrespond to an amount of content consumed (e.g., a number of mediaassets, a number of hours during which the user viewed programming, anumber of episodes, season, series, etc., and/or any other measure ofcontent consumed) over a period of time (e.g., hours, days, weeks, etc.)to a threshold rate (e.g., in the same units of measure). If the mediaguidance application determines that the rate of consumption of the useris less than the threshold rate, the media guidance application maydetermine the user is likely to terminate the service from which theuser accesses the media content.

Throughout this disclosure, various thresholds are discussed. It shouldbe noted that a threshold is a measurement, typically in the same unitsof measure as the measurement against which it is compared. Furthermore,the value of the threshold (as well as the units of measure) may bedetermined based on numerous sources. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine a value of a threshold based on data relatedto a user or based on industry data, market research, etc. For example,a threshold that determines when a user is likely to terminate a servicemay be based on the prior actions of one or more users.

In some embodiments, the rate of consumption may be indicated by aviewing history. As referred to herein, “a viewing history” refers to acollection of information related to media content consumed by a user.For example, the viewing history may indicate an amount of media contentconsumed by the user, the rate of media content consumed by the user,particular times when a user consumed media content, user preferencesfor media content consumed by the user, and/or any other informationrelated to the consumption of media content by the user. In someembodiments, the viewing history may indicate user preference orcharacteristics of media content preferred by the user. As used herein,a “characteristic” refers to any attribute of a media asset, series ofmedia assets, and/or type of media asset that distinguishes the mediaasset, series of media assets, and/or type of media asset from othermedia assets, series, and/or types.

For example, the viewing history may indicate that a user prefers (ordoes not prefer) a particular genre of media assets, series of mediaassets, or media assets featuring a particular actor. In someembodiments, the viewing history and characteristics in the viewinghistory may be used as criteria for recommending media content to auser. For example, the media guidance application may determine thecharacteristics of media assets that a user has already consumed andrecommend other media assets with similar characteristics. For example,in some embodiments, the media guidance application may filter availablemedia assets based on whether or not the available media assets havecharacteristics indicated by the viewing history as favorable to theuser.

The media guidance application may generate the viewing history and thelist of characteristics preferred by the user in the viewing historybased on active (e.g., querying the user regarding his or her likes anddislikes) or passive (e.g., tracking the media asset selections of theuser without notifying the user) monitoring. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may allow a user to enter information (e.g.,preferred characteristics) into the viewing history.

The media guidance application may determine whether or not a mediaasset is accessible (as well as the price, format, etc., stated above)based on information received from one or more services. For example,the media guidance application may receive media guidance data (e.g.,scheduling information, available media assets, etc.) as well asinformation regarding price, format, etc., from a database associatedwith a service. Alternatively or additionally, the media guidanceapplication may compile information about various services (e.g., basedon publicly available information, market research, known contractualrelationship between content providers and services, etc.).

For example, the media guidance application may search for alternativesources of a media asset (or a series of media assets of which the mediaasset is included) in response to determining that the user prefers themedia asset, the media asset was purchased by the user, the media assetis accessible via a service to which a user is nearing an ending date ofa subscription, etc. For example, the media guidance application mayquery a database (e.g., associated with each service) listing mediaguidance data such as scheduled broadcast times, on-demand programming,product or service offerings, supply contracts, etc., for each contentsource regarding media assets accessible from that service.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may filter mediaguidance data in the database based on whether or not the media guidancedata relates to the media asset. The media guidance application may thenreceive an output of all media guidance data (e.g., including schedulingand accessibility information for the media asset). The media guidanceapplication may then use the outputted media guidance data to determinewhether the media asset will be accessible to the user from thatservice.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive userinputs identifying alternative services to which the user subscribes.For example, a user may enter the various services from which the userhas authorization or a desire to receive media content as well asservice that facilitates the user's access to media content. The mediaguidance application may store the services available to, or authorizedby, the user. The media guidance application may then retrieve thestored services and search them for scheduling and accessibilityinformation.

Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application mayautomatically aggregate authorization and/or subscription data forvarious services from which a user may access media content. Forexample, the media guidance application may store password, login,payment, and/or other subscription data for the user for one or moreservices. In response to determining a need for determining schedulingand/or accessibility information (e.g., in response to a usersubscribing to a new service), the media guidance application may accessthe data to the one or more services to determine whether or not a useris likely to terminate its relationship with an existing service.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay content associated with preventing the user from terminating theservice. As used herein, such “content” is any media asset or mediacontent (as described herein) aimed at preventing the user fromterminating a service (whether or not the media asset or media contentis successful in preventing a user from terminating a service). Forexample, in response to determining that a user is likely to terminatehis use of or subscription to a service, the media guidance applicationmay generate for display content selected so as to urge the user to notterminate the service such as discounts, special offers, upcomingpromotions or media assets available through the service, etc.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 1-2 and 5 show illustrative display screens that may be used toprovide media guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 and5 may be implemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform.While the displays of FIGS. 1-2 and 5 are illustrated as full screendisplays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid over contentbeing displayed. A user may indicate a desire to access contentinformation by selecting a selectable option provided in a displayscreen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon, a hyperlink,etc.) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remotecontrol or other user input interface or device. In response to theuser's indication, the media guidance application may provide a displayscreen with media guidance data organized in one of several ways, suchas by time and channel in a grid, by time, by channel, by source, bycontent type, by category (e.g., movies, sports, news, children, orother categories of programming), or other predefined, user-defined, orother organization criteria.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 100arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 104, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 106, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 102 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 108, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 110. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 110 may be provided inprogram information region 112. Region 112 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andInternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 122 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement124 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options accessible through a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options accessible through amain menu display may include search options, VOD options, parentalcontrol options, Internet options, cloud-based options, devicesynchronization options, second screen device options, options to accessvarious types of media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to apremium service, options to edit a user's profile, options to access abrowse overlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 200, television listings option 204 isselected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 200 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 208 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Dec. 29, 2005,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4.User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306 and storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 302. I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (andspecifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 4, may be used to supplementstorage 308 or instead of storage 308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300. For example, display 312 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 312may be integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperaturepolysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display,active matrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display,cathode ray tube display, light-emitting diode display,electroluminescent display, plasma display panel, high-performanceaddressing display, thin-film transistor display, organic light-emittingdiode display, surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), lasertelevision, carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometricmodulator display, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visualimages. In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage308), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 308 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 310. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 300. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 300. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300.Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 310.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 300 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it is awireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412. Communications with the content source 416 and media guidancedata source 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 416 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 418), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/179,410, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 includes an illustrative example of a display that has generatedfor display content associated with preventing the user from terminatingthe service. For example, in response to determining that a user islikely to terminate his use of or subscription to a service, the mediaguidance application may generate for display content selected so as tourge the user to not terminate the service. For example, in response todetermining that a subscription of the user to the service is about toexpire, the media guidance application may generate for display one ormore portions of the content presented in display 500. In anotherexample, in response to determining that a user may terminate the use ofthe service and begin using a different service, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display one or more portions of the contentpresented in display 500.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine that aparticular series of media assets is a favorite of the user. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the user hasconsumed media assets of that series at a rate higher than the rate atwhich the user consumed other media assets or has not consumed any mediaassets other than those in the series during a particular time period.In response to determining that the user has consumed all of those mediaassets or is about to consume all of those media assets, the mediaguidance application may generate content associated with preventing theuser from terminating the service. In another example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the user has consumed mediaassets of that series at a rate higher than the rate at which the userconsumed other media assets or has not consumed any media assets otherthan those in the series during a particular time period. Moreover, themedia guidance application may determine that a media asset (or theentire series of media assets) is accessible from another service. Inresponse, the media guidance application may generate content associatedwith preventing the user from terminating the service (and using theother service).

Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application may trackthe rate at which a user consumes media assets from the service in aviewing history of the user. The media guidance application maydetermine that the rate has decreased over a particular amount of time.For example, the media guidance application may determine that duringthe first month of the service, the user consumed media assets at a rateof five per week. The media guidance application may also determine thatduring the second month of the service, the user consumed media assetsat a rate of three per week. Finally, the media guidance application mayalso determine that during the third month of the service, the userconsumed media assets at a rate of one or less media assets a week. Themedia guidance application may cross-reference this data in a databasethat indicates such behavior (e.g., the decreasing rate of use of theservice) indicates that a user is getting bored with the service and istherefore more likely to terminate the use of the service. In response,the media guidance application may generate content associated withpreventing the user from terminating the service.

For example, the media guidance may generate for display content aimedat causing the user to re-engage the service and thus prevent the userfrom terminating his service. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication, in response to determining that the current rate does notcorrespond to the threshold rate (e.g., a rate at which the mediaguidance application determines a user is likely to terminate the use ofthe service), determines a characteristic not associated with mediaassets previously consumed by a user and recommends a media assetassociated with the characteristic.

In another example, the media guidance application may determine thatthe rate change is due to the user using another service (e.g., the timeperiod of the rate change corresponds to time period corresponding tothe user beginning the use of the other service). In response, the mediaguidance application may generate content associated with preventing theuser from terminating the service (or terminating the use of the otherservice).

Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application maymonitor the brain state or attentiveness of the user. For example, themedia guidance application may monitor for an occurrence (e.g.,particular brainwave frequency ranges, particular eye blinking patterns,a particular level of eye content, particular emotional responses, etc.)or a series of occurrences over a period of time that indicate that auser is losing interest in the media asset offered by the service,dislikes the media assets offered by the service, is not attentive whenusing the service, is growing sleepy when using the service, etc. Inresponse to detecting such occurrences, the media guidance applicationmay generate for display content associated with preventing the userfrom terminating the service.

In another example, the media guidance application may determine thatthe brain state indicates that a user prefers another service (e.g., themood, attentiveness, eye content, etc., of the user is higher when theuser is using the other service). In response, the media guidanceapplication may generate content associated with preventing the userfrom terminating the service (or terminating the use of the otherservice).

Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application maydetermine that a particular media asset that is accessible to the firstuser using the first service (e.g., a cable television channel) is alsoaccessible to the user using a second service (e.g., an Internetprovider that provides increased bandwidth that may be used by the userto stream the media asset from a separate content provider). In responseto determining the media asset is accessible through both the firstservice and the second service, the media guidance application maygenerate for display, on a display device, content associated withpreventing the user from terminating the first service.

Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application maydetermine, based on a purchase history for a user that indicates mediaassets purchased by a user, that a number of media assets that werepurchased by the user from a current service are not accessible througha second service. The media guidance application may then compare thenumber of media assets to a threshold number. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine whether or not the number of mediaassets purchased from the current service that are not accessible fromanother service indicates that the user is likely to remain with thecurrent service. For example, if the user purchases numerous mediaassets from the current service that are not accessible from anotherservice, the user is less likely to stop using the current service (inlieu of the other service) than if the user purchases only a few mediaassets from the current service that are not accessible from anotherservice.

Display 500 includes numerous types of content associated withpreventing the user from terminating the service. For example, display500 includes numerous media assets aimed at providing one or morereasons for the user to retain the use of the service or to renew asubscription to the service. For example, display 500 includes icon bar502. Icon bar 502 notifies the user (e.g., via a textual message) thatthe subscription of the user to the service is almost expired.Furthermore, icon bar 502 urges the user to select icon bar 502 to renewhis subscription. For example, in some embodiments, selection of iconbar 502 may direct the user to an order form, which the user can use torenew the subscription. Alternatively, selection of icon bar 502 mayautomatically authorize the service to charge the user and renew thesubscription of the user to the service.

Display 500 also includes recommendation 504. Recommendation 504 iscontent associated with preventing a user from terminating the service.For example, in response to determining that a user is increasinglybecoming bored with the media assets offered by the service, the mediaguidance application may offer recommendations for other media assets.

Furthermore, as the user has likely already perused the media assets ina favorite category or genre (or consumed all the media assets in aparticular series), the media guidance application may recommend mediaassets in a category or genre that is not a favorite of the user (e.g.,in order to raise awareness to the user of available media assets thatare not known or were previously discounted by the user). Likewise, inresponse to determining that a user has consumed all the media assets ina particular series, the media guidance application may recommend mediaassets in a different series.

Accordingly, the media guidance application may determine particularcharacteristics (e.g., genre, subject matter, series affiliation) of themedia assets consumed by the user and recommend media assets that do notshare (or share only some of) those characteristics. Additionally oralternatively, the media guidance application may determine whichavailable media assets have not yet been consumed by the user and limitthe recommendations to those media assets.

Display 500 also includes recommendation notification 506. Notification506 may alert a user to media assets that, while not currentlyaccessible to a user (e.g., have not yet been released) will soon beaccessible to a user. In some embodiments, notification 506 may alsoinclude additional information (e.g., price and scheduling data).Additionally or alternatively, notification 506 may indicate to a userone or more media assets that are only accessible through a currentservice as well as indicate one or more media assets (e.g., favoritemedia assets of the user) that are not accessible from other services.

Display 500 may also include media listings 508. Media listings 508 mayindicate to a user one or more media assets that are available through acurrent service (e.g., in order to entice a user to remain with theservice) or one or more media assets that are not available throughanother service (e.g., in order to entice a user to not use or to stopusing that service). In some embodiments, media listings 508 may alsoinclude additional information (e.g., price and scheduling data) aboutmedia assets accessible from the current service. Additionally oralternatively, the media guidance application may include additionalinformation about media assets available from another service. Forexample, media listings 508 may include information that may be used bya user to compare the price and schedule (e.g., date when a media assetis accessible to the user via each service).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may list all mediaassets accessible through the first service in media listings 508.Alternatively, the media guidance application may select the medialistings presented in media listings 508 based on one or more criteria.For example, the media guidance application may select the medialistings in response to determining that a user has not consumed thosemedia assets, that the media assets are highly rated, that the mediaassets match user preferences of the user, that the price and/orscheduling data for each of those media assets is more favorable thanthe price and/or scheduling data from another service, etc. For example,the media guidance application may select media assets that areavailable to a user and/or at a lower price from a current service ofthe user than another service (e.g., one recently subscribed to by theuser).

Display 500 may also include advertisements 510. For example,advertisements 510 may provide discounts, coupons, and/or other specialoffers. In some embodiments, advertisements 510 may be linked to a usernot terminating a service. For example, the media guidance applicationmay offer a user a discount on the price of a service in response to auser signing up for a new subscription to the service. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may target advertisements510 to the user based on the viewing history of the user. For example,the media guidance application may determine that the user prefers aparticular genre of media assets and may present the user with an offerassociated with that genre of media assets.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for generating for displaycontent associated with preventing the user from terminating the servicein response to determining that a media asset is accessible through botha first service and a second service. It should be noted that process600 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any ofthe devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, process 600 may be executedby control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by a media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipment devices402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4)) in order to generate for display contentassociated with preventing the user from terminating the service inresponse to determining a media asset is accessible through both a firstservice and a second service. In addition, one or more steps of process600 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of anyother process or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to FIGS.7-9)).

At step 602, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a user is subscribed to a first service.For example, the media guidance application may retrieve a list (e.g.,from storage 308 (FIG. 3) and/or any location accessible viacommunications network 414 (FIG. 4)) that indicates one or more servicescurrently subscribed to or otherwise used to access media assets.

At step 604, the media guidance application may detect (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the user has subscribed to a secondservice. For example, the media guidance application may receive inputs(e.g., via user input interface 310 (FIG. 3)) from the user (e.g.,describing services to which the user subscribes), authorization data(e.g., received via I/O path 302 (FIG. 3)) from the second service(e.g., granting access to the user to media assets available from thesecond service), and/or information (e.g., received via I/O path 302(FIG. 3)) from third parties (e.g., online transactions, credit cardstatements, etc., related to the second service) that indicate the userhas subscribed to the second service.

At step 606, in response to detecting that the user has subscribed tothe second service, the media guidance application may compare (e.g.,via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) media assets accessible through thefirst service to media assets accessible through the second service todetermine whether a media asset is accessible through both the firstservice and the second service. For example, the media guidanceapplication may cross-reference a database (e.g., located at storage 308(FIG. 3) and/or any location accessible via communications network 414(FIG. 4)) that lists content providers for each media asset (or seriesof media assets) available from the first service to determine whetherthe second service provides a respective media asset. Alternatively oradditionally, the media guidance application may query (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) each service for a list of media assets(or series of media assets) currently available (or available in thefuture) and compare (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) theresults of the queries.

At step 608, in response to determining (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) the media asset is accessible through both the first serviceand the second service, the media guidance application may (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) generate for display, on a displaydevice (e.g., display 312 (FIG. 3)), content associated with preventingthe user from terminating the first service. For example, the mediaguidance application may (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3))generate for display discounts to the price of the first service oralert the user to media assets that are only accessible (currently or inthe future) through one of the services.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine (e.g.,via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) not to generate for display thecontent associated with preventing the user from terminating the servicein response to determining the media asset is not accessible through theservice. For example, in response to determining (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that one or more media assets are not accessiblethrough the second service, the media guidance application may determine(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that generating the contentis not needed in order to prevent the user from terminating asubscription to the service (e.g., the ability to access the mediaassets is itself an incentive to retain the user of the first service).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare (e.g.,via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the price for the first service to aprice for the second service and determine (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) not to generate for display, on the display device (e.g.,display 312 (FIG. 3)), the content associated with preventing the userfrom terminating the first service in response to determining (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the price for the first service isless than the price for the second service based on the comparison. Forexample, in response to determining (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) that the price for accessing one or more media assets from thesecond service, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that generating the content is notneeded in order to prevent the user from terminating a subscription tothe service (e.g., the lower costs of the media assets is itself anincentive to retain the user of the first service).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare (e.g.,via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a first date when the media asset isaccessible through the first service to a second date when the mediaasset is accessible through the second service and determine (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) not to generate for display, on thedisplay device (e.g., display 312 (FIG. 3)), the content associated withpreventing the user from terminating the first service in response todetermining (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the firstdate is before the second date. For example, in response to determining(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the user may access oneor more media assets through the first service before the secondservice, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that generating the content is not needed inorder to prevent the user from terminating a subscription to the service(e.g., the ability to access media assets sooner is itself an incentiveto retain the user of the first service).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may perform one ormore actions in response to determining (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) that a subscription period for the first service is ending.For example, in response to determining (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) that a subscription period for the first service is ending,the media guidance application may detect (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) whether or not the user has subscribed to a secondservice, whether or not the second service has similar media assets,etc.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 6 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 6 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 6.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for generating for displaycontent associated with preventing the user from terminating the servicein response to determining that the number does not exceed the thresholdnumber. It should be noted that process 700 or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. Forexample, process 700 may be executed by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)as instructed by a media guidance application implemented on a userdevice (e.g., user equipment devices 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4)) inorder to generate for display content associated with preventing theuser from terminating the service in response to determining that thenumber does not exceed the threshold number. In addition, one or moresteps of process 700 may be incorporated into or combined with one ormore steps of any other process or embodiment (e.g., as described inrelation to FIGS. 6 and 8-9)).

At step 702, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a media asset purchase history for auser, in which the media asset purchase history indicates media assetspurchased by the user from a first service. For example, the mediaguidance application may track (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG.3)) in a user profile (e.g., located at storage 308 (FIG. 3) and/orcommunications network 414 (FIG. 4)) the media asset purchases of auser. In some embodiments, the media asset purchase history may furtherindicate the purchases during a particular time period, the rate ofpurchases, etc.

At step 704, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a number of media assets that werepurchased by the user from the first service that are not accessiblethrough a second service. For example, the media guidance applicationmay cross-reference (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) adatabase (e.g., located at storage 308 (FIG. 3) and/or communicationsnetwork 414 (FIG. 4)) listing content providers for the media assetspurchased by the user from the first service to determine (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the number of media assets (or thenumber of different media asset series) that were purchased by the userfrom the first service that are not accessible through the secondservice. Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance applicationmay query (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) each service for alist of media assets (or series of media assets) currently available (oravailable in the future) and compare (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) the results of the queries.

At step 706, the media guidance application compares (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the number of media assets that were purchasedby the user from the first service to a threshold number. For example,the threshold number may represent a particular number of media assets,the purchase of which indicates that a user is unlikely to terminate theuser of the first service. The media guidance application may determine(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the particular number basedon the prior history of the user (e.g., the number media assets the userpurchased before previously renewing a subscription to the first serviceand/or the number of media assets the user purchased prior toterminating the use of another service), a group or users (e.g.,industry standards, market research, and/or customer feedback), etc.

At step 708, in response to determining (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) that the number does not exceed the threshold number, themedia guidance application may (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG.3)) generate for display, on a display device (e.g., display 312 (FIG.3)), content associated with preventing the user from terminating thefirst service. For example, the media guidance application may generatefor display discounts to the price of the first service or alert theuser to media assets that are only accessible (currently or in thefuture) through one of the services. Alternatively, the media guidanceapplication may (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) not generatefor display, on the display device (e.g., display 312 (FIG. 3)), thecontent associated with preventing the user from terminating the servicein response to determining (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3))that the number does exceed the threshold number. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) that a user is unlikely to terminate the use of the firstservice. Therefore, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that generating the content associatedwith preventing the user from terminating the first service isunnecessary.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine (e.g.,via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a media asset that was purchased bythe user from the first service is accessible through the second serviceand compare (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a first date whenthe media asset was accessible through the first service to a seconddate when the media asset was accessible through the second service. Inresponse to determining (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) thatthe first date is before the second date, the media guidance applicationmay increase the number by one.

For example, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that because the date of accessibilityof the media asset from the first service is before the date ofaccessibility of the media asset from the second service, the userlikely chose to purchase the media asset from the first service eventhough the media asset was accessible from the second service.Therefore, because the user chose to purchase the media asset from thefirst service instead of the second service, the purchase of the mediaasset should be counted towards the number (e.g., as it indicates thatthe user is unlikely to prefer to access that media asset from thesecond service). For example, if the user prefers to obtain a thresholdnumber of media assets, even if some of them are accessible from asecond service, from a first service, the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the user isunlikely to terminate the use of the first service.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine (e.g.,via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a media asset that was purchased bythe user from the first service is accessible through the second serviceand compare a first price of the media asset, in which the first priceindicates a price of accessing the media asset through the firstservice, to a second price of the media asset, in which the second priceindicates a price of accessing the media asset through the secondservice. In response to determining (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) that the first price is less than the second price, the mediaguidance application increases the number by one.

For example, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that because the cost of the media fromthe first service is less than the cost of the media asset from thesecond service, the user likely chose to purchase the media asset fromthe first service even though the media asset was accessible from thesecond service. Therefore, because the user chose to purchase the mediaasset from the first service instead of the second service, the purchaseof the media asset should be counted towards the number (e.g., as itindicates that the user is unlikely to prefer to access that media assetfrom the second service). For example, if the user prefers to obtain athreshold number of media assets, even if some of them are accessiblefrom a second service, from a first service, the media guidanceapplication determines that the user is unlikely to terminate the use ofthe first service.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare (e.g.,via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the price for the first service to aprice for the second service and determine (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) not to generate for display, on the display device, thecontent associated with preventing the user from terminating the firstservice in response to determining that the price for the first serviceis less than the price for the second service based on the comparison.For example, in response to determining (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) that the price for accessing one or more media assets from thesecond service, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that generating the content is notneeded in order to prevent the user from terminating a subscription tothe service (e.g., the lower costs of the media assets is itself anincentive to retain the user of the first service).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may perform one ormore actions in response to determining (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) that a subscription period for the first service is ending.For example, in response to determining (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) that a subscription period for the first service is ending,the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the number of media assets that were purchasedby the user from the first service that are not accessible through thesecond service, whether or not the user has subscribed to a secondservice, whether or not the second service has similarly priced mediaassets, etc.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 7 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 7 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 7.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for selecting contentassociated with preventing a user from terminating the service. Itshould be noted that process 800 or any step thereof could be performedon, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example,process 800 may be executed by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) asinstructed by a media guidance application implemented on a user device(e.g., user equipment devices 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4)) in order togenerate for display content associated with preventing the user fromterminating the service. In addition, one or more steps of process 800may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 6-7 and9)).

At step 802, the media guidance application determines that a user islikely to terminate a service. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that a user is likely to terminate a serviceusing system 1000 (FIG. 10). In another example, as described above inrelation to step 608 (FIG. 6), the media guidance application maydetermine that in response to determining (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) the media asset is accessible through both the firstservice and the second service, the media guidance application maydetermine (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that a user islikely to terminate a first service. In another example, as describedabove in relation to step 708 (FIG. 7), in response to determining(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the number does notexceed the threshold number, the media guidance application maydetermine (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that a user islikely to terminate a first service.

At step 804, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether or not a subscription of theuser is ending. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the user is subscribed to the service for a particularamount of time (e.g., a month, year, etc.) and that amount of time iscoming to an end. If so, the media guidance application proceeds to step806 and selects (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) criteriacorresponding to renewing a subscription of the user before proceedingto step 808. For example, if the media guidance application determines(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the subscription of theuser is ending, the media guidance application may generate contentassociated with renewing the subscription of the user (e.g., icon bar502 (FIG. 5)).

If the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that a subscription of the user is not ending atstep 804, the media guidance application proceeds to step 808. Forexample, if the subscription of the user is not nearing an end, then themedia guidance application determines not to generate content associatedwith renewing the subscription of the user (e.g., icon bar 502 (FIG.5)).

At step 808, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether or not the decision to terminatethe use of the service is related to a lack of content. For example, themedia guidance application may determine that the user has watched alarge portion of the content accessible from the service, has watchedthe most popular portions of the content accessible from the service(e.g., based on the preferences of the user, critical reviews, ratings,and/or editorial recommendations), etc. If so, the media guidanceapplication proceeds to step 810 and selects (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) criteria corresponding to presenting othercontent accessible to the user using the service before proceeding tostep 812. For example, if the media guidance application determines(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the user has watched alarge portion of content, the media guidance application may generatecontent associated with presenting other content available to the user(e.g., notification 506 (FIG. 5)) and media listings 508 (FIG. 5)).

If the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the decision to terminate the use of theservice is not related to a lack of content at step 808, the mediaguidance application proceeds directly to step 812. For example, if thedecision to terminate the use of the service is not related to a lack ofcontent then the media guidance application may determine not to presentother content available to the user (e.g., notification 506 (FIG. 5))and media listings 508 (FIG. 5)).

At step 812, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether or not the decision to terminatethe use of the service is related to competition. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) that content the user enjoys is accessible from anothercontent provider. In another example, the media guidance application maydetermine (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that a userrecently signed up for another service that directly or indirectlyprovides media content. If not, the media guidance application proceedsto step 820.

If so, the media guidance application proceeds to step 814 and retrievesadditional information on the competition before proceeding to step 816.For example, if the decision of the user to terminate his or her serviceis based on competition, the media guidance application may determine(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the price and accessibilityinformation (e.g., what media assets are available and when) for thecompetition. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maydetermine the price and/or scheduling data for each media asset that ismore favorable with the current provider than the price and/orscheduling data for the competition. For example, the media guidanceapplication may select media assets that are available to a user and/orat a lower price from the current service of the user than anotherservice (e.g., one recently subscribed to by the user).

At step 816, the media guidance application determines whether or notthe decision of the user to terminate the service was based on price.For example, if some media content (or the media content preferred bythe user) is accessible from another service at a lower price, the mediaguidance application may determine that the decision of the user toterminate the service was based on price. If so, the media guidanceapplication proceeds to step 818 and selects (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) criteria corresponding to a price discount. Forexample, if the price of content from the current service is an issuefor the user, the media guidance application may determine to generatefor display content that offers a discount in price (e.g.,advertisements 510 (FIG. 5)).

At step 820, the media guidance application determines whether anycriteria were selected. For example, the media guidance application mayaccess a database (e.g., located locally at storage 308 (FIG. 3) orremotely at any location accessible via communications network 414 (FIG.4)) of content associated with preventing a user from terminating theuse of the service. The media guidance application may filter (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the available content based on thecriteria and retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) thecontent associated with the criteria at step 824.

Alternatively, if the media guidance application determines that nocriteria were selected, the media guidance application may selectdefault content associated with preventing the user from terminating theuse of the service. In some embodiments, the default content may berandomly selected or may be selected based on additional factors. Forexample, while not based on any selected criteria, the content may stillbe targeted to a user based on information about the user found in auser profile (e.g., located at storage 308 (FIG. 3) and/or any locationaccessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4)).

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 8 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 8 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 8.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining a number tocompare to a threshold number. It should be noted that process 900 orany step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, process 900 may be executed bycontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by a media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device (e.g., user equipment devices402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4)) in order to determine a number to compareto a threshold number. In addition, one or more steps of process 900 maybe incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 6-8)).

Process 900 illustrates the quantification of reasons that a user islikely to retain his or her subscription to a service. For example, eachmedia asset that was purchased by the user (e.g., an indication that theuser prefers that media asset or has an interest in that media asset)that is not accessible from another service is another reason that theuser is not likely to terminate the user of the first service. Theamount of the number of media assets that were purchased by the userfrom the first service that are not accessible through a second serviceis therefore a quantified reflection of these reasons.

At step 902, the media guidance application determines the number ofmedia assets that were purchased by the user from the first service thatare not accessible through a second service. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve (e.g., from storage 308 (FIG. 3)and/or any location accessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4))a media asset purchase history for a user that indicates the number ofmedia assets that were purchased by the user. The media guidanceapplication may then determine (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG.3)) the number of the media assets that were purchased and that are notaccessible through a second service. For example, as described above inrelation to step 606 (FIG. 6)), the media guidance application maydetermine whether or not a particular purchased media asset is availablefrom a second service by cross-referencing a database (e.g., located atstorage 308 (FIG. 3) and/or any location accessible via communicationsnetwork 414 (FIG. 4)) that lists content providers for each media asset(or series of media assets) that was purchased. Alternatively oradditionally, the media guidance application may query (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) each service for a list of media assets(or series of media assets) currently available (or available in thefuture) and compare (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) theresults of the queries to the purchased media assets to determine thenumber of media assets that were purchased and were not accessiblethrough the second service. The media guidance application may thenstore (e.g., in storage 308 (FIG. 3) and/or any location accessible viacommunications network 414 (FIG. 4)) the number.

At step 904, the media guidance application retrieves (e.g., fromstorage 308 (FIG. 3) and/or any location accessible via communicationsnetwork 414 (FIG. 4)) a list of media assets that were purchased by theuser from the first service that are accessible through a secondservice. For example, as described above, the media guidance applicationmay determine (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether or nota second service provides access to a purchased media asset. In responseto determining (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that a secondservice does provide access to a purchased media asset, the mediaguidance application records (e.g., in storage 308 (FIG. 3) and/or anylocation accessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4)) the mediaasset in a list of media assets.

At step 906, the media guidance application retrieves a media asset fromthe list. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve afirst media asset from the list and determine at step 908 whether or notthe media asset costs less from the first service than the secondservice. For example, in addition to retrieving information aboutwhether or not the media asset is accessible from another service, themedia guidance application may determine additional information (e.g.,the price of the media asset from the other service, the date on whichthe media asset is accessible, the format in which the media asset isaccessible, etc.) for the second service (as well as the additionalinformation for the first service). If the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the mediaasset cost less from the first service than the second service, themedia guidance application proceeds to step 914 and increases the number(e.g., stored in storage 308 (FIG. 3) and/or any location accessible viacommunications network 414 (FIG. 4)).

For example, in response to determining that the media asset cost lessfrom the first service than the second service, the media guidanceapplication determines that there is another reason for the user toretain his or her subscription for the first service. For example, whilethe media asset is accessible from another service, the media asset isonly accessible at a higher price. Therefore, the stored number isincremented (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) to reflect this.

If the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the media asset from the first service doesnot cost less than the media asset from the second service (e.g., themedia asset costs the same amount, costs more than, or is notaccessible), the media guidance application proceeds to step 910.

At step 910, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether or not the media asset isaccessible from the first service before the media asset is accessiblefrom the second service. If the media guidance application determines(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the media asset isaccessible from the first service before the media asset is accessiblefrom the second service, the media guidance application proceeds to step914 and increments the number (e.g., stored in storage 308 (FIG. 3)and/or any location accessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4))by one. For example, while the media asset is accessible from anotherservice, the media asset is only accessible at a later date. Therefore,the stored number is incremented (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG.3)) to reflect this.

If the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the media asset is not accessible from thefirst service before the media asset is accessible from the secondservice (e.g., the media asset is accessible from the second service onthe same date or before), the media guidance application proceeds tostep 912.

At step 912, the media guidance application determines whether or notthe media asset format from the first service is better than the mediaasset format from the second service. If the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the mediaasset format from the first service is better than the media assetformat from the second service, the media guidance application proceedsto step 914 and increments the number (e.g., stored in storage 308 (FIG.3) and/or any location accessible via communications network 414 (FIG.4)) by one. For example, while the media asset is accessible fromanother service, the media asset is only accessible in a less desirableformat (e.g., while the first service may provide the media asset inhigh definition, the second service provides the media asset in onlystandard definition). Therefore, the stored number is incremented (e.g.,via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) to reflect this.

If the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the media asset format from the firstservice is not better than the media asset format from the secondservice (e.g., the formats are the same), the media guidance applicationproceeds to step 916. At step 916, the media guidance applicationdetermines whether or not there are additional media assets in the list.If so, the media guidance application returns to step 906 and retrievesa different media asset from the list. For example, the media guidanceapplication may perform multiple iterations of process 900 until eachmedia asset in the list has been processed.

If the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that there are no additional media assets in thelist, the media guidance application proceeds to step 918. At step 918,the media guidance application compares the number to a thresholdnumber. For example, as described above in relation to step 706 (FIG.7), the media guidance application may compare (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the number of media assets that were purchasedby the user from the first service to a threshold number. For example,the threshold number may represent a particular number of media assetsthe purchase of which indicates that a user is unlikely to terminate theuser of the first service. The media guidance application may determine(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the particular number basedon the prior history of the user (e.g., the number of media assets theuser purchased before previously renewing a subscription to the firstservice and/or the number of media assets the user purchased prior toterminating the use of another service) or a group or users (e.g.,industry standards, market research, and/or customer feedback), etc.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 9 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 9 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 9.

FIG. 10 is an illustrative system for generating an indicator of thelikelihood that a user will terminate access to a service or source. Thecomponents and operation of system 1000 may be implemented by circuitryor by software (e.g., the media guidance application). Furthermore,system 1000 may be used by any embodiments herein to determine alikelihood that a user will terminate access to a service. For example,in response to determining that a user will likely terminate service,the media guidance application may generate for display contentassociated with preventing a user from terminating the service.

System 1000 includes a predictive attributes engine 1020, a history ofbilling data memory 1030, a learning model engine 1040, and a trainedmodel engine 1050. Predictive attributes engine 1020 receives data(e.g., content attributes data 1010, user equipment viewer data 1012,which includes indications about what live and recorded content a userwatches, on-demand data 1014, online activity data 1016, social networkactivity 1018, current user attributes 1026, and data from memory 1030).On-demand data 1014 may indicate which non-linear content the user haspreviously consumed or purchased. Online activity data 1016 indicateswhat content the user consumed online (e.g., from a streaming source).

Predictive attributes engine 1020 processes one or more of the data itreceives to generate attributes that represent a population of userswith similar activity. The generated attributes 1022 are output tolearning model engine 1040. Learning model engine 1040 receiveshistorical outcomes 1024 from history billing data memory 1030.Historical outcomes 1024 indicate what sources or services the user haspreviously subscribed to and to which sources or services the user haspreviously terminated access a period of time after subscribing to them.Learning model engine 1040 may correlate historical attributes 1022 ofvarious users with historical outcomes 1024 of those users to determinepatterns that resulted in termination of access to sources or services.Historical outcomes 1024 may be stored as a database for various users.The database may indicate for each user what sources or services theuser has previously subscribed to and to which sources or services theuser has previously terminated access a period of time after subscribingto them.

For example, learning model engine 1040 may process historical outcomes1024 of a first user to identify a point at which the first user hasterminated access to a source or service (e.g., unsubscribed from apremium channel). In some embodiments, the first user may be a formersubscriber to a source or service (e.g., a user who completelydisconnected service from a particular source, such as a former cablesubscriber that switched to satellite). In such circumstances, learningmodel engine 1040 may analyze behavior of the former subscribercorresponding to the viewing activity and subscription activity theformer subscriber had before becoming the former subscriber. Inparticular, leaning model engine 1040 may process the viewing activityand subscription activity of a former cable subscriber to determine whatcable services the former subscriber subscribed to and/or terminatedservice from before disconnecting from cable and switching to satellite.

Learning model engine 1040 may retrieve historical attributes 1022 forthat first user for a period of time before the user terminated accessand/or a period of time after the user terminated access to detect achange in viewing activity that may have resulted in the userterminating access to the source or service. Learning model engine 1040may perform the same analysis for each other user for which data isavailable (e.g., in a database for historical outcomes 1024) and whoterminated access to the same source or service. After processing thedata for each user who terminated access to the particular source orservice, learning model engine 1040 may identify similarities inattributes 1022 of those users during the period preceding and/orfollowing each respective user's termination of access to the source orservice. Learning model 1040 may store a correlation factor between thesimilar attributes and the particular source or service. The correctionfactor indicates that, when a subsequent user who is a subscriber to thesame source or service exhibits at least some of the similar attributes,the user will likely terminate access to the source or service. Thegreater the number of similar attributes that the user exhibits, thelarger the score that results from the correlation factor, indicating agreater likelihood that the user will terminate access to the source orservice. Learning model engine 1040 may generate a different correlationfactor for each source or service to which a set of users terminatedaccess.

In some embodiments, learning model engine 1040 may be trained on anongoing, continuous basis. In particular, learning model engine 1040 maycontinuously process information (e.g., user activity, historicaloutcomes 1024, and subscription information) for each subscriber or userand adapt or change the correlation factor for a given service. Theupdated correlation factor then may be provided to trained model engine1050. In some implementations, learning model engine 1040 may update apreviously determined correlation factor each time a given user or setof users terminate access to a particular source or service. Forexample, each time new information is stored to a database of historicaloutcomes 1024 (e.g., each time a given user unsubscribes or disconnectsfrom a given source or service), a signal identifying the source orservice associated with the new information may be transmitted tolearning model engine 1040 indicating a need to recompute or update acorrelation factor corresponding to the identified source or service.

After a predetermined amount of time and/or after a datum from apredetermined number of users has been processed by learning modelengine 1040, the model may be provided to trained model engine 1050.Trained model engine 1050 may process current attributes 1026 of a givenuser with each of the correlation factors provided by learning modelengine 1040 that is associated with a source or service to which theuser is a subscriber. Trained model engine 1050 may output a score thatrepresents how closely correlated the current user's attributes are withthe correlation factor. The score output by trained model engine 1050may be source/service specific. A larger score indicates a greaterlikelihood that the user will terminate access to the source or service.

The media guidance application may process the score for a given user totarget advertisements and promotions. For example, in response todetermining that the score of a given user exceeds a first threshold,the media guidance application may identify the source or serviceassociated with the score. The media guidance application may provide apromotion to the user for the source or service (e.g., allow the user tokeep the subscription to the source or service at a discounted price).Alternatively, the media guidance application may provide anadvertisement for content available on the source or service to theuser. In some implementations, in response to determining that the scoreof a given user exceeds a second threshold higher than the firstthreshold, the media guidance application may provide a different set ofpromotions and/or advertisements. If the score is below a threshold, themedia guidance application may avoid presenting promotions oradvertisements for the source or service.

In some embodiments, in response to determining that the score of agiven user is below a threshold, the media guidance application mayinstruct a subscriber management system to initiate a process forretaining the given user. In some embodiments, in response todetermining that the score of a given user is below a threshold, themedia guidance application may provide a visual alert to an operator ofsource or service associated with the score. The visual alert mayinclude information that identifies the user, the source or service,and/or the score. For example, the subscriber management system may,based on the instruction from the media guidance application and thescore, contact the given user (e.g., place a phone call, send a textmessage or email) to offer a new offer, discount on other services(e.g., packages of programming), or reduction in price of currentservices. The offer may be specific to the source or service for whichthe score is below the threshold or generic. In particular, if the scoreindicates that the user is likely to terminate access to a premiumchannel, the subscriber management system may contact the given user,offering any combination of a reduction in the current price the givenuser is paying for the premium channel, a discount on a new service(e.g., phone service for a cable subscriber), or a discount on a newpremium channel not currently subscribed to by the given user. In someimplementations, the subscriber management system may apply differentoffers to different users who have the same scores. The subscribermanagement system may determine what level of offer to a given user notonly based on the score of the user but also based on information storedin historical outcomes 1024 for the user and/or currently subscribed toservices. For example, if first and second users have the same score fora particular service (e.g., cable) but the first user is not asubscriber to premium channels, the subscriber management system mayoffer the premium channels (or a set of premium channels that meet auser profile for the first user) at a discount. The second user mayalready be a subscriber to the premium channels and accordingly thesubscriber management system may offer alternate services to the seconduser at a discount (e.g., phone services if the second user does notcurrently have phone service).

In some embodiments, trained model engine 1050 may receive subscriptioninformation for a given user and user activity information. Thesubscription information may indicate that the user is a subscriber to apremium channel on the source (e.g., HBO on cable) and the user activityinformation may indicate that the given user has not viewed content fromthe premium channel in more than a threshold period of time (e.g., morethan two weeks). In response, trained model engine 1050 may identify acorrelation factor associated with the premium channel and generate ascore indicating that the user is likely to terminate access to thepremium channel. The value of the score may be higher or lower based onother user activity and subscription information. For example, if theuser watches content from an affiliate of the premium channel (e.g.,Cinemax) that is tied to the subscription of the primary channel (e.g.,HBO), then the score may be reduced.

In some embodiments, the subscription information may indicate that theuser is a subscriber to a premium channel on the source (e.g., HBO oncable), and the user activity information may indicate that the givenuser has increased the speed of their Internet connection. In response,trained model engine 1050 may identify a correlation factor associatedwith the premium channel and generate a score indicating that the useris likely to terminate access to the premium channel. In particular, theuser may have increased Internet speed because he or she intends toaccess more content online and may not need the premium channel anymore.The score may be further increased if the above determination is madethat the user has not viewed content from the premium source in morethan a threshold period of time (e.g., more than two weeks).

In some embodiments, the subscription information may indicate that theuser has purchased a predetermined number of movies from a source (e.g.,a certain cable provider), and the activity information may indicatethat the user watches non-premium content sources (e.g., free TV). Inresponse, the score output by trained model engine 1050 may be reducedas the user is less likely to terminate access to the source (e.g.,disconnect service from the cable provider). In some implementations,the subscription information may indicate that the user is a subscriberto a cable provider, and the user activity information may indicate thatthe given user watches new releases on demand from the cable provider.In response, the score corresponding to the cable provider output bytrained model engine 1050 may be decreased as the user is unlikely toterminate access to the cable provider as there may not be an alternatesource from which the user can obtain access to the new releases. Insome implementations, the subscription information may indicate that theuser is a subscriber to a cable provider, and the user activityinformation may indicate that the given user does not watch many liveevents (e.g., linear content) and has increased the Internet speed. Inresponse, the score corresponding to the cable provider output bytrained model engine 1050 may be increased as the user is likely toterminate access to the cable provider as the user may be looking tostream more content from an online source. In some implementations, thesubscription information may indicate that the user is a subscriber to acable provider, and the user activity information may indicate that thegiven user watches many live events (e.g., linear content) and commentson a social network about the live events. In response, the scorecorresponding to the cable provider output by trained model engine 1050may be decreased as the user is unlikely to terminate access to thecable provider. In some implementations, the subscription informationmay indicate that the user is a subscriber to a cable provider, and theuser activity information may indicate that the given user watches avariety of content. In response, the score corresponding to the cableprovider output by trained model engine 1050 may be decreased as theuser is unlikely to terminate access to the cable provider.

In some implementations, the subscription information may indicate thatthe user is a subscriber to a premium channel on the source (e.g., HBOon cable), and the user activity information may indicate that the givenuser has subscribed to a different premium channel (e.g., Showtime oncable). In response, the score corresponding to the HBO premium channeloutput by trained model engine 1050 may be increased as the user islikely to terminate access to the HBO premium channel given that theuser will consume content from the other premium channel. In someimplementations, the subscription information may indicate that the useris a subscriber to a premium channel on the source (e.g., HBO on cable),and the user activity information may indicate that the given user onlywatches a certain show on the premium channel that has recently ended(e.g., the season of the show has finished). In response, the scorecorresponding to the HBO premium channel output by trained model engine1050 may be increased as the user is likely to terminate access to theHBO premium channel given that the user will no longer have content toconsume from the premium channel.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done inparallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may beperformed in real time. It should also be noted that the systems and/ormethods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems and/or methods.

1. A method for preventing users from terminating services, the methodcomprising: retrieving, using control circuitry, a media asset purchasehistory for a user, wherein the media asset purchase history indicatesmedia assets purchased by the user from a first service; determining,using the control circuitry, a number of media assets that werepurchased by the user from the first service that are not accessiblethrough a second service; comparing, using the control circuitry, thenumber to a threshold number; and in response to determining that thenumber does not exceed the threshold number, generating for display, ona display device, content associated with preventing the user fromterminating the first service.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising, in response to determining that the number does exceed thethreshold number, not generating for display, on the display device, thecontent associated with preventing the user from terminating theservice.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising cross-referencinga database listing content providers for the media assets purchased bythe user from the first service to determine the number of media assetsthat were purchased by the user from the first service that are notaccessible through the second service.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: comparing a price for the first service to a price for thesecond service; and determining not to generate for display, on thedisplay device, the content associated with preventing the user fromterminating the first service in response to determining that the pricefor the first service is less than the price for the second servicebased on the comparison.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:determining a media asset that was purchased by the user from the firstservice is accessible through the second service; comparing a first datewhen the media asset was accessible through the first service to asecond date when the media asset was accessible through the secondservice; and in response to determining that the first date is beforethe second date, increasing the number by one.
 6. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining a media asset that was purchased by theuser from the first service and is accessible through the secondservice; comparing a first price of the media asset, wherein the firstprice indicates a price of accessing the media asset through the firstservice, to a second price of the media asset, wherein the second priceindicates a price of accessing the media asset through the secondservice; and in response to determining that the first price is lessthan the second price, increasing the number by one.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising determining the number of media assets thatwere purchased by the user from the first service that are notaccessible through the second service in response to determining that asubscription period for the first service is ending.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the content includes a discount for the first service.9. The method of claim 1, wherein the content includes a list of mediaassets accessible through the first service.
 10. The method of claim 9,wherein the media assets accessible through the first service areaccessible at a future point in time.
 11. A system for preventing usersfrom terminating services, the system comprising: storage circuitryconfigured to store content associated with preventing the user fromterminating the first service; and control circuitry configured to:retrieve a media asset purchase history for a user, wherein the mediaasset purchase history indicates media assets purchased by the user froma first service; determine a number of media assets that were purchasedby the user from the first service that are not accessible through asecond service; compare the number to a threshold number; and inresponse to determining that the number does not exceed the thresholdnumber, generate for display the content associated with preventing theuser from terminating the first service.
 12. The system of claim 11,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to not generate fordisplay the content associated with preventing the user from terminatingthe service in response to determining that the number does exceed thethreshold number.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to cross-reference a database listingcontent providers for the media assets purchased by the user from thefirst service to determine the number of media assets that werepurchased by the user from the first service that are not accessiblethrough the second service.
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: compare a price for thefirst service to a price for the second service; and determine not togenerate for display, on the display device, the content associated withpreventing the user from terminating the first service in response todetermining that the price for the first service is less than the pricefor the second service based on the comparison.
 15. The system of claim11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: determine amedia asset that was purchased by the user from the first service isaccessible through the second service; compare a first date when themedia asset was accessible through the first service to a second datewhen the media asset was accessible through the second service; and inresponse to determining that the first date is before the second date,increase the number by one.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: determine a media asset thatwas purchased by the user from the first service and is accessiblethrough the second service; compare a first price of the media asset,wherein the first price indicates a price of accessing the media assetthrough the first service, to a second price of the media asset, whereinthe second price indicates a price of accessing the media asset throughthe second service; and in response to determining that the first priceis less than the second price, increase the number by one.
 17. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto determine the number of media assets that were purchased by the userfrom the first service that are not accessible through the secondservice in response to determining that a subscription period for thefirst service is ending.
 18. The system of claim 11, wherein the contentincludes a discount for the first service.
 19. The system of claim 11,wherein the content includes a list of media assets accessible throughthe first service.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the media assetsaccessible through the first service are accessible at a future point intime. 21-50. (canceled)